Saturday, March 24, 2012

While THE HUNGER GAMES have been getting huge press in the print and online media, both the book series and the MOVIE, there is one side to the
HUNGER GAMES MEME that has not been discuissed very much, and it relates well to the way Jim Laughter in POLAR CITY RED, a new cli fi novel,
has indeed tacked the issue of giving his book a strong moral message. In fact, POLAR CITY RED is more than a mere sci fi or cli fi novel. There is a powerfulmoral messaage in his book, and it this message that makes it stand out from the current crop of pop culture apocabooks.

In THE HUNGER GAMES books and movie, the call for a strong moral message goes completely unanswered. There is no moral message that comes through, not for the characters and not for the readers.

Said one reader of the HUNGER GAMES books, Dana Leigh:

"I read and read, waiting for the characters to develop, to come to understandings, to break through and open up and help us, the readers, realize along with them that even if things are bleak and wretched there can be hope, we can still maintain our dignity and humanity and compassion. We can learn from our mistakes. We can be the better person. We can overcome.But no. Author Suzanne Collins instead makes the reader part of the audience to a sad and violent reality show where we're super excited and horrified to see who's gunna git killed next. The story is dark and depressing and shallow. And poorly written.

''The crazy-hard moral dilemma of our would-be heroine Katniss - in which she must kill or be killed - should REALLY bring out some character-building, impossibly complex ethical predicaments, right? Again, no. When Katniss kills another child in the arena, we always feel that he really deserved it. He was an a-hole. He was dangerous. We all love us some good old fashioned black-and-white characters. Bad guys are always easy to kill. When Katniss begins to like one of her opponents and frets over the "one of us is going to have to kill the other" situation, the other character is killed off by one of the bad guys. Whew. Glad we didn't have to face that one. How convenient. And how horribly shallow and irresponsible.

''Ugh. I just wanted these books to be so much more. But they weren't."

"I did make it through all three books, because yes, they are fast-paced and super compelling to read. But. But! Easy to read does not neccesarily make a good book."

''The setting of a dystopian society wherein children are pitted against one another to the death in an annual melee ABSOLUTELY BEGS for a strong moral message. A message of humanity, hope, compassion, the darkness AND the lightness in each person, forgiveness, sacrifice, redemption... And the call is completely unanswered. There is no moral message that comes through, not for the characters and not for the readers.

I read and read, waiting for the characters to develop, to come to understandings, to break through and open up and help us, the readers, realize along with them that even if things are bleak and wretched there can be hope, we can still maintain our dignity and humanity and compassion. We can learn from our mistakes. We can be the better person. We can overcome.

Nope! Suzanne Collins instead makes the reader part of the audience to a sad and violent reality show where we're super excited and horrified to see who's gunna git killed next. The story is dark and depressing and shallow.''